Clifton, NY Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

You may leave whatever you wish to your children. Your spouse, however, has the right to elected to take a share in your estate without regard to your will. If you have no assets or don't have many this won't mean much, but the spouse does have the right of election to take against your estate - you cannot disinherit a spouse.

Go back to your family law lawyer to obtain a modification your divorce decree, to obtain your former husband's agreement, to set up an estate plan, (trust), with your daughter named as beneficiary of his estate. If your husband does nothing, i.e no will or trust, no estate plan, then his estate goes to your daughter, except the acquisitions during his second marriage. A policy of insurance on his life for the value of the assets in question may be a solution.

The IRS has the ability to attach their tax lien to any property owned by the tax debtor. This means the IRS could execute the lien against the property and force a sale with the proceeds applied to pay off the tax lien. Even if the IRS did not force a sale the lien would have to be paid if the property were sold in a private sale and the lien paid off before the net proceeds are received by the owner.